Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka Prevails in a Duel With a Japanese Flavor

Masahiro Tanaka has been mired in his worst season with the Yankees. After taking a six-day break, he allowed three hits in eight scoreless innings Friday.CreditAdam Hunger/Getty Images

By Seth Berkman

June 24, 2017

Waking up on Saturday morning, baseball fans in Japan were able to watch two homegrown pitching idols duel for the first time since 2011, when they still competed in the Nippon Professional Baseball league.

Perhaps a disclaimer should have been displayed before the nationally televised game in Japan between the Yankees and the Texas Rangers was broadcast at 9:47 a.m. local time: Do not adjust your set, that indeed is Masahiro Tanaka on the mound sporting a 6.34 earned run average.

This year, Tanaka has rarely resembled the pitcher who became a national sensation for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2007 to 2013 and later a major league All-Star after joining the Yankees in 2014. But on Friday night at Yankee Stadium, against a familiar foe in Rangers starter Yu Darvish — a former ace for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters — Tanaka flashed nostalgic form in a 2-1 Yankees victory in 10 innings.

Tanaka threw eight scoreless innings, holding the Rangers to three hits while striking out nine, which lowered that ugly E.R.A. to 5.74. However, the Yankees could not do anything against Darvish, either, and did not score until the bottom of the ninth inning, when a one-out solo home run by Brett Gardner off Matt Bush negated an unearned run allowed by Aroldis Chapman in the top of the frame.

After the Rangers could not capitalize with the bases loaded in the top of the 10th, Ronald Torreyes hit a two-out single to score Gary Sanchez in the bottom of the inning and leave everyone in pinstripes pretty happy.

“His best performance of the year — he had everything going tonight,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said of Tanaka afterward. “When you get a performance by Tanaka like that, where he shuts down a team that’s been scoring runs and is able to hit the ball out of the ballpark, you need to win that game.”

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Yu Darvish struck out 10 in seven innings for Texas, allowing two hits and no runs. In Japan, Darvish and Tanaka faced each other four times.CreditAdam Hunger/Getty Images

As for facing Darvish for the first time in the major leagues, Girardi said, “I’m sure it meant a lot to him to go toe to toe.”

Tanaka admitted as much afterward, saying he was “excited going into the game” because he was facing Darvish. "But once the game starts, you’re not actually going against Darvish, you’re going against the Texas lineup.”

Before Friday, Tanaka had completed eight innings only once this year, in what has been his worst season since he came to the United States before the 2014 season. On April 27, he did throw a complete-game shutout in Boston, allowing three hits with three strikeouts.

But his performance against the Rangers (and Darvish) resonated more loudly, given how much he has struggled as the season has progressed. Tanaka has allowed 21 home runs this year and has not won since May 8.

His strikeout total on Friday night was particularly encouraging, as was the diversity in Tanaka’s third-strike pitches — twirling sliders, mid-90s fastballs, curves and sinkers that muted the Rangers’ strong lineup.

Despite a rain delay of 1 hour 42 minutes, Tanaka appeared more than ready to compete. He took the field 40 minutes before the first pitch, running around the tarp still on the infield to begin his outfield stretching routine while a drizzling rain fell.

When the game began, Tanaka opened the night by striking out Shin-Soo Choo on three pitches. One of his few precarious situations arrived in the third inning, when Jonathan Lucroy and Mike Napoli led off with a single and a walk.

Tanaka rebounded to strike out Joey Gallo, and then Choo grounded into a double play, ignited by a diving catch by Torreyes at third base. For the second straight game, Torreyes started for Chase Headley, who is recuperating from back spasms. Headley received an epidural injection after Thursday’s game and said he was doing better Friday afternoon, but Girardi thought he’d be back in the lineup no sooner than Sunday.

Napoli was the last Ranger to reach base until Carlos Gomez hit a two-out single in the eighth inning. Tanaka walked Napoli but forced Gallo to ground out to end the threat.

There were no thunder sticks or banging drums in the stands, which commonly added to the hyped atmosphere when Tanaka pitched against Darvish in Japan, but the home crowd did its boisterous best to support Tanaka. When he entered the dugout after the eighth inning, he received a standing ovation.

To the Yankees’ batters, Darvish, too, was mystifying. In seven innings, he held the Yankees to two hits and no runs with 10 strikeouts. For as long both starting pitchers were in the game, it was a classic pitchers’ duel.

Tanaka pitched opposite Darvish four times in Japan, going 1-3 while lasting eight or more innings three times. Friday’s matchup was the 15th time in the major leagues that two Japanese-born pitchers started against each other. Tanaka has pitched twice against Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma, while Darvish has five combined starts against Iwakuma and the former Yankee Hiroki Kuroda.

And now they have one appearance against each other in the majors.

Tanaka had the benefit of entering Friday’s game on a five-day break; throughout his major league career, he has pitched better on extended rest, a prescription that Darvish vocally campaigned for in 2014 after watching a number of pitchers — including Tanaka — sustain elbow injuries. In Japan, Tanaka and Darvish cultivated their arms regularly while pitching with five days’ rest or more.

Tanaka may not get that lengthy a break many times this season, but he took a step Friday in getting his season back on track.

“I was able to throw with good conviction, and I’m really happy with the result,” he said.

INSIDE PITCH

Jacoby Ellsbury took batting practice before the game after passing a concussion test Thursday. Joe Girardi said he believed Ellsbury would begin a rehab assignment “pretty soon.”